Chilling video shows a skydiver grinning with joy as he leaps from a plane — moments before he and his instructor got tangled up and plummeted to their deaths.
The footage of Alex Welling’s final moments was played in an Australian court this week as the director of the skydiving company was found guilty of safety breaches that led to the double tragedy.
Welling, 32, was seen sticking his tongue out and grinning as he and his experienced instructor, Stephen Hoare, 37, edge out of the open door to jump.
But instead of a smooth exit, the video shows a black strap catching on a protruding step, leaving the pair stuck dangling upside down in midair.
The pilot tried several maneuvers to free the pair, including flying low over the airport while staff on the ground stood on top of a four-wheel drive to try and grab them.
Both men ultimately fell to their deaths when the connection to the plane failed or was severed during the tragic incident at Goulburn airport in southern New South Wales on June 27, 2021.
Goulburn Flight Training Center and its director, Attilio Giovanni Ferrara, known as John Ferrara, were both found guilty of two counts each of breaching workplace safety duties in the NSW District Court on Tuesday.
During his 10-day trial in September 2025, the jury was told that the skydivers’ equipment got caught on a metal step that had recently been installed on the Cessna plane.
Footage was released on Tuesday despite the objections of the skydivers’ families after the Judge, Andrew Scotting, ruled that it could help to prevent future tragedies.
Ferrara was not in court on Tuesday when the verdict was read out.
He is due to be sentenced at a later date.
